The Imam of Drancy Hassen Chalghoumi (third from the left), Lebanese Imam Mohammad Ali Al-Husseini (fourth from the left), Egyptian Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb (center) and writer Marek Halter (fifth from the right) pose with others behind a banner as they prepare to take part in The Muslim March Against Terrorism in Paris on July 8, 2017 | Francois Guillot/AFP via Getty Images

Muslim leaders begin European bus tour against terrorism in the name of Islam

The tour, involving around 60 imams, will visit the sites of terror attacks by Islamist extremists.

Muslim leaders launched a European bus tour in Paris on Saturday to express opposition to terrorism in the name of Islam.

Under the banner “Muslims’ march against terrorism,” imams from around Europe and North Africa planned to visit sites of recent terrorist attacks, starting at the Champs Elysees and passing through Germany, Belgium and other parts of France over the next week.

“Our message is clear: Islam cannot be associated with these barbarians and these murders,” who kill in the name of Allah, said Hassen Chalghoumi, the imam of Drancy, France, according to Le Figaro. The initiative is the brainchild of Chalghoumi and Marek Halter, a French-Jewish writer and intellectual.

The tour will land at the site of an attack on a Christmas market last year in Berlin on Monday, before holding a ceremony in Brussels on Tuesday. It is set to stop in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, France (visiting the grave of a priest who was stabbed), and a Jewish school that was targeted in Toulouse. It will also pass back through Paris and the Bataclan nightclub, according to the Belgian paper La Libre, wrapping up on July 14 in Nice, where French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to participate in an homage to victims on the anniversary of the truck attack on the Promenade des Anglais.

About 30 imams were on the bus departing from Paris on Saturday, according to Reuters, with around 60 expected to participate in total, from countries including France, the U.K., Tunisia, Belgium and Portugal.

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Tom Cullem

And if they hadn’t let so many of them in, they wouldn’t have the problem in the first place. Foolish immigration policies, foolish Europe.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 4:19 PM CEST

Vishnou

@Tom Cullen: you are glady mixing up everything even if I agree that the Muslim community hasn’t been willing to prevent such acts. Non-acting muslims are not concerned. Only religious ones who respect ancestral traditions are a threat to democracy. And only those who pretend to feel rejected become actors. Parents have to be educated first and allowances suppressed if they don’t fill their obligations. Immigration policies will remain whether you like it or not. There is no other solution in veiw of climate change and wars. So, it would be more intelligent to solve those problems first and make sure people can live secure in their home country.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 4:39 PM CEST

Ishnu

So who are they that they are speaking in the name of that religion?
Is it possible that they, even they, foresee the cause-effect that’s coming?
Is it possible that they are capable to understand that they’ve prepared the pave off extinction?
Fear can do a lot with people. For instance, it can make them lie. You see that a lot with criminals!
Is this different?

Posted on 7/8/17 | 4:49 PM CEST

Andrea

Fear can make monkeys dance.
Dance monkeys, dance!
Because we’re coming for you.
And your children.
Until the earth is clean!

Posted on 7/8/17 | 4:54 PM CEST

Paul

Many animals ‘feel’ the coming of a natural disaster. Even worms.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 5:00 PM CEST

Atreides

They have fear of the Final Solution that’s coming. They know it’s inevitable. They know it must be done. But the know too, that they’re on the wrong side of the equation 😉

Posted on 7/8/17 | 5:06 PM CEST

Remember

We don’t forget,
We don’t forgive.
War is coming to you and when the dust settles down,
Not one of you will be left!

Posted on 7/8/17 | 5:11 PM CEST

MariannaW

Trump would at least have a travel ban imposed for them!

Posted on 7/8/17 | 5:38 PM CEST

Vishnou

@MariannaW: Do you qualify to emigrate to the States. Please do 🙂

Posted on 7/8/17 | 6:51 PM CEST

Katherine

I fear my last comment was censored for theological reasons. Do I have the right as a Muslim woman to say divine law is manmade on this forum?

Posted on 7/8/17 | 8:28 PM CEST

freddie silver

@ Vishnou Your usual nonsense is getting worse in your reply to Mr. Cullem. I have seldom found such salad of arguments, mostly wrong and badly written, in the Politico comments. ..non acting Muslims (who are they, is that a movie with actors?) . Religious ones…threat to democracy (false, the real bad ones use religion as a shield for their crimes; the honest pious ones stay away). The rejected ones become actors (at the Comedie Francaise?) Parents have to be educated.. ( do you volunteer to go into a cité in the suburbs of Paris or Marseille to do that?) Immigration policies will remain.. (not so sure even in Merkel’s Germany)…no solution due to climate change (how about teaching modern irrigation methods and have those people do something for their own countries). Since even Amnesty International has labelled the migrants as “economic migrants” there are no “war victims” to cry about. Next time put some order in your thoughts

Posted on 7/8/17 | 9:58 PM CEST

glasspix 1

They are fooling no one with these stunts. This is mandatory PR offensive to help keep their socilaist and liberal appeasers longer in power while they flood the country with millions more of their fellow believers.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 10:08 PM CEST

Milton38

Religions, all of them, are constructions based not on fact but on belief.
I may quote Carl Jung; “The word ‘belief’ is a difficult thing for me. I don’t believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it – I don’t need to believe it.”
Many, if not all Muslims, believe that their god is a cruel, mean entity and they form their actions accordingly. The only question one has to ask any of these ‘peaceful’ imams is, what is your reaction when one of your followers decides to relinquish his religion.
As long as the individual does not have the right to openly and without fear declare that he does not believe anymore that religion is not welcome in Europe.

Posted on 7/9/17 | 5:53 AM CEST

Handsome Jack

So the first wave blows things up, then the second wave just infests and proselytizes nonstop at said locations.

There was a time when this sort of action could have meant something. Where were the good guys in ’03 — and after all the grisly decapitation shows — and while cultural treasures were looted and blown to smithereens? How come Rushdie rated a fatwa, but no mosques steeped in hate and terrorists steeped in blood stand a chance of getting one?

Mind you, I’m not defending our part in this debacle at all, but they’re the ones responsible for defending their faith. And it’s a little late to think a PR tour can do it.

SWSfraser

I see this as positive. I hope it will be influential for those who need to be influenced from the edge and brought back to a religion of peace. I hope it will healing for others. Most of all, I hope this isn’t a gesture without real plans for reform where reform is required, and to make difficult choices to realign those who are out of alignment. I think the brutal nature of “certain countries” where I have seen coverage of, for instance, a woman being dragged to the side of a road and beheaded in front of traffic and what appears to be security- these things desensitizes people and it seems even (dare I say) “normal” to some… Its nearly 2020. Its past time that we live peacefully with our neighbors as civilized people should. It will take strong leaders who are willing to tell a large portion of their countrymen that their days of butchery are over and they will behave like civilized me, and preaching of hate and violence is at an end. And, most of all I wish this traveling group of leaders a safe journey, full of amazing experiences.